Thank God the series is over

To start off, let me talk about the comments about Tendulkar getting older etc ... just coz some of the readers of this blog (and elsewhere too) pointed it out. Guys, he is around 31 or 32, no more than that. Yes, he has played international cricket since he was 16 but that is his choice and our good luck. His having played so much cricket cannot be an excuse for his below par performance; he is not doing anyone a favour by playing cricket today. That is his profession and he is expected to do it, not that he does it to make us all happy. News is that the cricketers have signed the contracts, SRT included, and SRT is in the A category of players which means a lot of moolah. If he is getting old, let him go sit on an armchair and write his auto-biography, not get bowled by Ontong and Hall and crap like this. I don't know if he himself feels ashamed getting out to Ontong and Hall but I feel ashamed watching the highlights on TV. His dignity is slowly getting stripped.

Anyway, today's play made me a happy man. Not coz we won coz that is nothing to be proud of; we should have won this series 2-0 and both times within 4 days. What made me happy is the commentary on Crickinfo that showed Tendulkar coming out to the spinner and hitting him for a big six over long on. Hmmm, you can count on ur fingertips the number of times he has done it in the past three-four years.

Anyway, lets not talk too much about the India-SA series. It was an insult to cricket and an insult to the public. The only people who benefitted probably were the players who still got their fat pay cheques for doling out that drivel in the name of test cricket.

Anyway, it got confirmed that Andrew Leipus would be leaving after the Bangladesh tour and a new physio would take over. No news on the coach yet which might mean Wright stays. Hopefully we will get more inputs over time. Personally, I think we need someone more aggressive; Wright's approach was probably good when it came to handling a temperamental but talented side which played as individuals and not as a team. Now we are more or less playing as a unit and with good unity and discipline, the team needs a push which takes them from being also-rans to being winners (yeah right ... winning 1-0 against SA the way they did does NOT make them winners). Seeing India's performance over the past couple of series really makes me wonder if Wright is the person to give that push. Something tells me that with a team like India, where so much of aggression is lying latent (SRT becoming responsible being a case), one needs an Aussie touch to take them to the next rung ... where they can actually stand and look at the Aussies in the eye.

About SA, the only thing big about them right now is their coach's mouth. If this is the best team they have, I think Australia is the only team we need to think about ... earlier I always used to think about Australia and South Africa as the top two teams in International cricket.

Team for the Bangladesh tour was announced. Hopefully we won't be drawing any test matches there. Otherwise, like he did against SA, Ganguly would be crapping about good cricket from both his side and the SA side and all that after playing the dullest cricket possible. They drew the first test; ok, it shouldn't have happened. It was too shameless to actually call it good cricket.

What is sad about this Bangladesh tour is that Kumble's 435th wicket and SRT's 34th ton would probably come on this tour and for milestones achieved, really, achieving them against Bangladesh surely would take away some if not a lot of the pleasure. SRT's ton really (if it does indeed come) would not be that big an event for me personally coz he has played crap in the recent past but Kumble has been amazing in the recent past. This year he has taken 66 wickets or something like that in tests and he deserves all the praise he can get and then some more. Getting some Bangladeshi batsman as his 435th ... damn, that doesn't even have a good sound to it.

SS Paul gets a look in and that is good coz he has been doing all the correct things in domestic cricket and A tours ... but Bangladesh is not really the place for a fast bowler (or medium fast bowler in this case) to be making his mark. Good luck to him. Another inclusion is Gagandeep Singh of Punjab who I know nothing about (at least I have seen SS Paul bowling three or four times) ... his record in domestic looks to be pretty good. Good luck to him too.

Anyway, non cricket news. Bhupathi will be teaming up in 2005 with one half of the Woodies ... seems Woodbridge has been dumped by his 2003-2004 partner Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) who will be teaming up with Max Miryni (incidentally, Bhupathi's partner in 2004). I don't know who Paes's partner will be but the Woodbridge / Bhupathi pair will be a cinch to be the team of 2005.

Aussie Ind ... relax about my getting the comments on my blog. Write with passion and people will respond.

And for those of you who are thinking that this site is really not living upto expectations due to the infrequent posting, I agree it is disappointing but I will be thinking up ways by which this can be more regular and more importantly, more content can be covered. Don't lose hope; bear with me ... somewhere out there, there is a solution to this problem; I will find it soon.

Cheers

The Chuckster